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Kristian Matz
04-13-2017, 9:24 AM
Has anyone come up with a good system for preparing logos and text for importing in to ezcad? So far I have tried corel (x5) and illustrator.

All of our artwork are clean vectors, we do not use any bitmaps. I have a lot of experience preparing logos for engraving on both rotary machines and lasers.

What is the best format to export? I have not been able to use corel with our having to do a lot of work to the art after I import in ezcad. Illustrator is better, but I still get a lot of duplicate lines and I have to go in and click on every line and delete one of them.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you

Scott Shepherd
04-13-2017, 10:12 AM
Have you tried saving it to AI v8? Still getting duplicates with that?

Kristian Matz
04-13-2017, 10:19 AM
I will give it a shot. Is that from illustrator or corel?

Scott Shepherd
04-13-2017, 10:36 AM
I will give it a shot. Is that from illustrator or corel?

Either one, maybe try both on the same file and see it one works better.

Gary Hair
04-13-2017, 10:54 AM
An easy trick to simplify artwork is to use smart fill. Create a new layer and smartfill the image then export as an AI v8 file - 99.9% of your problems will go away.

Kristian Matz
04-13-2017, 11:03 AM
I did a logo in both Corel (exported as .ai 8.0) and in Illustrator saved as .ai 8.0

The corel file was horrible and would take a long time to fix. The Illustrator file was pretty. I will continue to test.

Kristian Matz
04-13-2017, 11:22 AM
I am trying to do this but I cant figure it out. I am adding a layer, selecting the smart fill tool and they clik the logo?

Bert Kemp
04-13-2017, 11:26 AM
you have to clic inside the logo between the lines

Bill George
04-13-2017, 11:30 AM
Export to EZCad I used DXF R14, text needs to be Hatched of course. The other I use is BMP and its slow but it gets done.

Gary Hair
04-13-2017, 11:34 AM
I am trying to do this but I cant figure it out. I am adding a layer, selecting the smart fill tool and they clik the logo?

Click wherever you want to fill. Change the color to yellow so you can easily see what you have already filled in. It helps to draw a rectangle around the object so you can "contain" where it fills.

Here is a youtube video that shows the basics of how to use smartfill:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3dEyPM1dog

Kristian Matz
04-13-2017, 11:57 AM
I figure out how to do it, thank you Gary. I exported the logo as .ai (8) and when I import it to EZCAD it has added a lot of extra lines. Am I missing a setting?


Click wherever you want to fill. Change the color to yellow so you can easily see what you have already filled in. It helps to draw a rectangle around the object so you can "contain" where it fills.

Here is a youtube video that shows the basics of how to use smartfill:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3dEyPM1dog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3dEyPM1dog)

Gary Hair
04-13-2017, 1:57 PM
I figure out how to do it, thank you Gary. I exported the logo as .ai (8) and when I import it to EZCAD it has added a lot of extra lines. Am I missing a setting?

Not that I'm aware of, that's why I use smart fill.

Kristian Matz
04-13-2017, 2:15 PM
Sorry, I was asking about settings in the export. I see a bunch of options in addition to selecting the export version.

Gary Hair
04-13-2017, 2:29 PM
I use:
Preserve curves and text by removing transparent effects - the other option will create bitmaps, you don't want that!
Export text as curves - ezcad won't import text as text from an ai file, at least I haven't been able to make it work.
Convert outlines to objects

Kristian Matz
04-13-2017, 2:46 PM
Ok, I changed my export setting to match yours and now it seems to be working.

Thank you!

Kev Williams
04-13-2017, 2:55 PM
?? Why are you guys filling what goes to EZcad? not understanding--

I create what I want in Corel, then combine and paint, just to make sure all elements are 'closed' as they should be...
Once I'm satisfied, I remove the fill, leave only an outline, and export it as a DXF. Then EZcad fills it...??

To wit, a job, start to finish, for a motorcycle seat, that I also just sent to EZcad and engraved on a scrap of black anodized...
Pics I was sent, want's these on the seat, and wants the lettering curved on top to match the seat curve.

Originals...
358271

Split the channels, found the ones I wanted, made them black--
358272

Sent them to Casmate and scanned them.
I also used Casmate to curve the lettering, as I haven't figured out how to get Corel OR Gravostyle to do this...
Total scan and curve-the-text time: less than 5 minutes. This is why I'll never get rid of Casmate :)
this is the resulting vector files, the one on the right I added an outline to so I could get a negative image...
358273

In Corel I simply 'combined' them, and painted them. All's well...
358274

Had to use the negative version on the leather because the engraving
would be lighter than the background...
358275

So I took the files and exported them from Corel as a DXF...
358276

As imported into EZ cad- I moved Godspeed up out of the way
so I could hatch the devil, them moved it back down--
358277

Then engraved it....
358278


So, this is why I'm wondering why anyone is filling BEFORE EZcad?

Bill George
04-13-2017, 3:00 PM
So, this is why I'm wondering why anyone is filling BEFORE EZcad?

Ditto, that is what I said Kev. If its filled in its treated as BMP as I see it. A vector is much faster.

Gary Hair
04-13-2017, 3:01 PM
?? Why are you guys filling what goes to EZcad? not understanding--

I use smart fill to "fix" drawings that are sent to me with multiple lines, overlapping areas that shouldn't be, white filled objects covering other objects, etc. Smart fill gives me a quick and easy way to essentially redraw the artwork in the best format for ezcad. Obviously, ezcad can't see the fill, that's not the point! The point is creating objects where sometimes there isn't one or isn't one that's usable as is.

Kristian Matz
04-13-2017, 3:05 PM
For me the smart fill is just correcting the overlapping lines that can not be filled in ezcad. The fill does not transfer over to ezcad from corel.

Edit: Pretty much what Gary said..

Gary Hair
04-13-2017, 3:12 PM
?? Why are you guys filling what goes to EZcad? not understanding--

When a customer sends you a file that looks like the left side but when you import into ezcad it looks like the right side, I can fix it in about 2 minutes and a few clicks of the mouse...358279

John Lifer
04-13-2017, 3:17 PM
I've been using DXF export from Corel X7 Looks like you might have it, so I'll leave you to it! And convert any text to curves.